Internally generated variability in the subtropical gyre is studied as a possible mechanism for the observed interannual to decadal variability in subtropical mode water formation. An isopycnic ocean model with idealized geometry and forcing which mimics the North Atlantic subtropical gym is used for this purpose. The horizontal resolution is sufficiently high and the friction and diffusion suf...

Patterns of spatial positioning of individuals within microbial communities are often critical to community function. However, understanding patterning in natural communities is hampered by the multitude of cell-cell and cell-environment interactions as well as environmental variability. Here, through simulations and experiments on communities in defined environments, we examined how ecological...

Shifting attention among visual stimuli at different locations modulates neuronal responses in heterogeneous ways, depending on where those stimuli lie within the receptive fields of neurons. Yet how attention interacts with the receptive-field structure of cortical neurons remains unclear. We measured neuronal responses in area V4 while monkeys shifted their attention among stimuli placed in d...

Biological communities often occur in spatially structured habitats where connectivity directly affects dispersal and metacommunity processes. Recent theoretical work suggests that dispersal constrained by the connectivity of specific habitat structures, such as dendrites like river networks, can explain observed features of biodiversity, but direct evidence is still lacking. We experimentally ...

Balanced acceptance sampling is a relatively new sampling scheme that has potential to improve the efficiency of spatial studies. There are two drawbacks of the design, it can have low entropy and some of the unbiased estimates can not be calculated. In this paper, such shortcomings have been addressed by integrating simple random sampling with balanced acceptance sampling. In a simulation stud...

Two distinct low-frequency fluctuations are suggested from a joint frequency domain analysis of the Pacific Ocean (30°S-60°N) sea surface temperature (SST) and sea level pressure (SLP). The lowest frequency signal reveals a spatially coherent interdecadal evolution. In-phase SST and SLP anomalies are found along the subarctic frontal zone (SAFZ). It is symmetric about the equator, with tropical...

Oxygen isotope compositions of herbivore tooth enamel from two areas in Kenya were measured using a laser Ž . fluorination approach. Isotope heterogeneity was found within four sets of teeth in the jaws of different individuals ;2‰ , Ž . as well as within individual teeth. The rear molar M3 of a zebra shows a 1.4‰ variability, whereas, the middle and rear Ž . Ž . molars M2 and M3 of a gazelle s...

Stochastic switching is an example of phenotypic bet hedging, where an individual can switch between different phenotypic states in a fluctuating environment. Although the evolution of stochastic switching has been studied when the environment varies temporally, there has been little theoretical work on the evolution of phenotypic switching under both spatially and temporally fluctuating select...